Jakarta. Indonesia won the gold medal in SEA Games football after beating arch-rival Thailand 5-2 in a dramatic final match at the Olympic Stadium in Phnom Penh on Tuesday evening to end the wait of more than three decades.

The Garuda team has won all previous five matches in the Cambodian edition of the SEA Games with a 16-3 goal difference to reach the final in style.

The last time the Indonesian football team won the SEA Games gold medal was in Manila in 1991 against the same opponent.

Thailand again proved to be Indonesia’s toughest rival in the tournament.

Indonesia opened the lead with two goals from Muhammad Ramadhan Sananta in the first half. But his second goal drew protests from the opponents as he lobbed the ball past the goalkeeper from a “fair play” pass after a teammate was stretchered out of the pitch for an injury.

The referee, however, allowed the goal with a video reply showing two Thai defenders failing to control the incoming pass deep from the Indonesian box.

Anan Yodsangwal headed in straight from a corner to reduce the deficit 20 minutes into the second half.

The match had to go to extra time when Thai forward Yotsakon Burapha dramatically netted the ball to equalize the score 2-2, shortly after Indonesian coach Indra Sjafri celebrated too early inside the pitch for mistakenly interpreting a referee’s whistle as the last one during the 98th minute or the dying seconds of the injury time.

Tension boiled over quickly after Irfan Jauhari regained Indonesia’s lead in the opening minute of the extra time, taking advantage of a fatal mistake by a Thai defender who lost control of the ball in the last defense line.

There was a physical altercation at the bench involving officials and players from both teams as the Indonesian camp celebrated the goal. An Indonesian coach assistant was knocked to the ground during the ensuing chaos.

Indonesian defender Komang Teguh and Thai goalkeeper Soponwit Rakyart were shown a red card by the referee for trading punches during the incident, which prompted a large number of security officials to intervene.

Off the pitch, two staff members from Thailand and one from Indonesia were also sent to the stand.

But the Indonesian players didn’t lose their composure and continued to control the game to add two more goals in the remaining time courtesy of great individual play by Fajar Fathur Rachman and Beckham Putra.

Thailand, on the other hand, got two more players ejected from the field for getting a second yellow card each.

In total, seven red cards were dished out – three for Thai players, two for Thai staff members, one for an Indonesian player, and one for an Indonesian staff member.

The win adds just one more medal to Indonesia’s tally but winning a regional football competition means a lot for the football-loving nation with a population of more than 273 million.

It also came after the country lost its rights to host the U-20 World Cup in the last minute before what supposedly was Indonesia’s first-ever FIFA tournament begins this month. FIFA canceled the Indonesian edition due to opposition from local politicians to Israel’s participation.

On October 1 last year, more than 130 Indonesian football fans lost their lives in a stadium crush after police used teargas munitions to control spectators during a post-match chaos in Malang, East Java.

Indonesia's senior team has never won another regional football competition, the ASEAN Football Federation Cup, despite reaching the final for a record six times.